Crypt Cleanser
Posts: 732
Joined: Monday, 24th April 2017, 11:46
Connect magic schools with player resistances
Fire Magic: rF at skill 10, fire-cloud immunity at 18, rF++ at 26
Ice Magic: rC at skill 10, ice-cloud immunity at 18, rC++ at 26
Poison Magic: rPois at skill 10, poison cloud immunity at 18, poison immunity at 26
Charms: a full pip of MR at skill 10, another at 18
Hexes: ditto
Air: rElec at skill 10, permanent flight at 18
Earth: starting from skill 10, a point of AC for each new level
Transmutations: rMut at skill 10, rMut++ at 18, rMut+++ at 26
Translocations: 70% resistance against involuntary translocations at skill 10, banishment immunity at 26
Necromancy: rN at skill 10, rot immunity at 18, torment resistance at 26
Summoning: can't think of anything - maybe passive abjuration or something like that
Why would all that be good: Of course it would add flavour to the game. More importantly, it would be an incentive to invest significantly into magic schools for characters that find themselves lacking in some of these resistances: Octopodes or Felids for armour, Gargoyles and Trolls for magic resistance, etc. Some of these resistances are very hard to come by, particularly for characters that are lacking some of the slots.
I believe such a system would work because it affects all magic schools, and therefore no player could afford to pursue all of these benefits. It would provide interesting strategic choices, and it would help to get new players interested in magic schools. Just pursuing a school for a pip of a resistance would be stupid, so players would also try out in which other ways they may benefit from these experience investments.
It may be objected that some characters are already very strong in these resistances, and get overpowered by learning one or two obvious magic schools. A gargoyle comes to mind. On the other hand, some characters wouldn't have any obvious benefit from pursuing some schools. But I think there would still be enough choice for most characters to reap significant benefits by choosing different career paths.
Has this idea been proposed and rejected earlier? I couldn't find any discussion to that point, but may be it is on some list of things that are never going to happen?